Taxi Driver Online

The One Show on BBC1 last night looked at the impact UBER has had on the black cabs in London and I have to say as an owner it is rather worrying. Since the launch of UBER the number of people studying the "knowledge" has fallen 1/3, it looks like it will fall further. Some city councils have started to drop the knowledge test.

When the researcher tested both UBER and black cabs they found black cabs easy to hail and UBER easy to book and turned up in minutes. The main difference, UBER was around £5 cheaper for roughly the same route.

London cabbies have reported a fall in revenue or are working far longer hours.

Anybody doing research online can see this company has had an impact on the traditional cab/taxi trade in every city it has launched.

New York cabbies have had to deal with a 28%-40% fall in the value of their medallion.

UBER drivers in Edinburgh will also be security checked and come under the taxi inspector. Call them direct they are happy to answer questions. No chance in my eyes will the plate value not be effected in some form.

I believe Edinburgh is not immune from this, we are a unique city but UBER are here to get a slice of the pie and have serious funds to make it happen. I see the ranks getting a slower turnover and the Saturday night queue disappearing over time as people use UBER and all the part time drivers that flood the market.

I think the wages will slowly fall for drivers and I also believe plate values will also decline. This year will be as good as it ever gets for owners and drivers in terms of earnings.

Everyone will earn a wage, Blacks, ECPH and UBER, but at a lower wage than the living wage. It can only get tougher!

If smaller shops like LIdl and Aldi can rock a multi billion business like Tesco and take away a big share of their profits then UBER can have an impact on our earnings.

Please do your own research as there is plenty information and stats out there.

There is a documentary coming out soon on the BBC about the impact UBER has had on the world and the traditional taxi trade.

Companies like City and Central will see jobs like telephonists getting fewer and fewer.

The council has also written to every driver who has a school run to drop their price.

I'm gutted and was in denial for a long time but technology waits for no man and this is the new world.

UBER has a massive machine behind them, IT professionals, advertisement executives, etc. Black cabs may always be here but in what standing only time will tell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... w-09062015
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2 ... lues-tank/

Cheers

It was an interesting clip.

Uber is here to stay, I suggest operators (English version) get their act together and improve their dispatch and the general quality of their offerings.

_________________
IDFIMH

Uber is here until it uses up all the available oxygen, once it's supply is depleted it will start to suffocate in the very vacuum it was responsible for creating and start to slowly die, smaller operators will survive because they do not need as much oxygen to live on as the bigger Uber requires..

As I said before.

Radio is old hat.
Dataheads are becoming old hat.
Uber is the new tomorrow. Unfortunately. but true.

They can drop and raise prices at will. Even Doris popping to bingo will eventually use an app to book a cab.


Until offices get code writing to catch up. They will get left behind.

Just [edited by admin] me off that building a respectable offuce with many drivers is not luck. It takes hard graft.

Then big cheese comes in and uses money to snap up local businesses who have been around for years.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... uber#img-1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt0lG3IRZQ


Catch up TV viewing recommended

The Super Rich and Us. Two part series BBC.
Horizon. The Dark Side of the Web. BBC.
Citizen Four. Channel 4.
Dennis Potter's Karaoke / Cold Lazarus. Channel 4 / BBC.

First the financial incentives for both the drivers and the public through reduced rates and discounting taxi fares.
Gain a sizeable market share then begin to squeeze the market through a reduction in rate per mile paid to the drivers and price surging for the passengers.
Perhaps the guys posting on this thread should look at some of the postings in other threads on this site detailing the experience of drivers and passengers in other cities where these App companies have gained a significant market share to get an idea how they operate long term.
That is the real challenge to our trade in that the average taxi driver struggles to take a long term approach to his business.

I think radio still has it's place.

But dataheads are defo old hat.

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IDFIMH

Watchdog 8pm Thursday 18th June 2015.

No, the main difference they don't have a clue where they're going, struggle to speak English, continually commit traffic offences as they don't know London, so chose to ignore one ways, prohibited turns and motorway hard shoulders. They also work 6 or 7 days a week for over 12 hours a day to make it pay and live the Uber dream.

'£5 cheaper' .... when its not 'surging' at a higher rate on their meter, then they're well above the amount I'd charge.

But what a deal !!.... get lost, get 'surged' and have a ride in a Prius with a guy from Afghanistan who can't speak English, and know you're helping the parent company avoid UK taxes, fantastic!



And as for me working all those extra hours, well I must be missing something there.

But on a positive note, lots of scumbags, 'youf' , tightarses and weirdo's have moved over to Uber, so working Fri / Sat nights have never been more pleasant and trouble free, and our regular taxi users can now get a taxi without to much hassle from q jumpers.

But wont the less positive of customers be binned off by the customer rating issue?

_________________
IDFIMH

Now they've flooded the circuit with crap drivers opposed to the original higher end Merc service, I doubt the newer 'x' crew would realise what a crap punter is.

We do ....

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... al-process

The example shown by the reporter near the end of this article where he booked a vehicle with fake documents was almost an exact example of an exercise that was carried out recently with another Taxi App company operating within Edinburgh.

An individual had registered with this company at an Open Day and was set up as an approved driver even though he had no public hire vehicle, no public hire drivers licence or insurance.
As I had the App on my phone I carried out the exact same excercise as the reporter and booked a supposedly Public Hire vehicle and with the driver standing alongside me he accepted my job request.
The driver owns a privately owned Ford Focus with no Public Hire licenses or insurance.
The fare was not completed and the excercise was only carried out as a test.

I am sure that there are those who wouldn't really care if a Ford Focus turned up to take them to their destination if the fare was cheap enough even though the ramifications of travelling in a privately owned car without the correct insurance could be severe but what are the long term implications.

The irony of it all is that the City of Edinburgh City Council were unable to take action as the Company involved do not have a Booking Office Licence and so have not broken any local licensing laws.

The trade and the local authorities have a bit catching up to do at all levels if we are to protect the unsuspecting General Public of these sharp practices. Or is it the case that we have to wait until something goes terribly wrong before action is taken.

The Company involved has been made aware of its failings in the way it processes its applications from potential drivers and the individual involved in this exercise has had his registration withdrawn.

Please see below an account of a friend using the Uber service in Sydney Australia.

Hi Les
I'll be back mid August so see you soon. I used Uber last weekend on a $20 voucher. The guy travelled 2 miles further than the actual journey to pick me up so was waiting about 20 mins, didn't know where he was going but had his gps app. Fare was $19.20 of which he loses 20% to uber plus his time, his car, his fuel and insurance for what was almost an hours time. Probably about $13 for him, you can get $25 stacking shelves in the supermarket here. Drivers will be hard to come by at these rates but where else can they make the savings that are passed onto the customer.

Cheers,
Stevie